Highlanders

The Battle of Culloden: The Impact and Legacy of the Last Full-scale Battle Fought on British Soil

Less than five miles east of Inverness, Scotland, lay the wind-swept, marshy, and undulating plain of Drummossie Moor.  It was here on April 16, 1746, amongst the waving heather, aromatic cedar, and a noon-time rain that Jacobite forces—those who favored the restoration of the Catholic Stuart family line—met government “redcoat” forces loyal to the current English Hanoverian king, George II.  Despite months of generally good success campaigning against government troops, Charles Edward Stuart’s Jacobite forces were in a compromised situation and spirit.  In addition to being outmanned nearly three-to-two, the government troops under William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland were better equipped (especially with heavy artillery), rather well rested, and better provisioned in terms of rations and munitions.  If the lack of men, firepower, and food weren’t enough concern for the largely Scottish Highlander forces that comprised “Bonnie Prince Charlie’s” Jacobite army, they would also be asked to fight on open, boggy terrain—terrain that likely would compromise their proven, winning fighting style: the feared and famed Highland charge.  While surely armies throughout antiquity have faced similar grim situations and still prevailed, few of those armies have done so when encumbered by poor leadership and decision-making.  Such would be the case for the Jacobite army of Scottish Highlanders at Culloden (pronounced CULL-aw-den) under the Bonnie Prince.